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"After many thank you's we have bestowed upon you, I again just want to say on behalf of the group how much we totally enjoyed the trip to Tasman. Each and every guide was a pro from beginning to end. We as a group could not have asked for more. Each and every person achieved their goal. That in itself speaks volumes for Aspiring Guides. We have all been to the Himalaya many times and also to NZ. Aspiring Guides head by Marty Beare over-shadows any previous Guided Trip we have been on. I wish you great success with your future - John Bentley, NSW Australia
"Phil Penney was an excellent guide. He combined experience and professionalism with a confident relaxed manner and good companionship. Climbing with Phil was like climbing with an old friend." - Geoff Bonney
Steve Elliot, Australia, Steep Alpine Ice Course:
"what made a greater and more appealing impact was the timeliness of our on line corresponding and the fact that my emails were obviously read and discussed by the staff with an action plan then considered by the guide.
I achieved a good deal, and importantly to me, confirmed my interest and desire for technical alpine climbing.
Being treated as a potential future "peer" in the hills (No, not a guide, I like to eat too well), but someone for whom the hills offer a spiritual connection and that my desire to learn was fostered. I especially am grateful to the MAG team all round for their efforts in trying to circumventing the wx, and doing what they could to find ways of getting us up into the hills (way to go Jean and Nick). Including the flight out in the normal course of events is a real bonus too.
The obvious effort the team put in, and the welcoming attitude that was maintained through out all my dealings with you made things special. Most importantly, the course was a truly didactic exercise and not a guided tour, conducted by a guide with thorough local knowledge and a very supportive outlook; and it was a "get your hands on the hills"effort not a piecemeal modular TMC. The course itself offers a very positive way to quickly develop ones abilities in the hills and that's what I wanted.
From the very first contact with MAG it was obvious that there is a highly professional team who work hard, are approachable, and seem genuinely interested in doing the best they can for their clients. I feel I got fantastic value for money. One more thing; I might be wrong, but it was comforting to see that the staff and the business is not reliant on one person only to perform one role and that you all seemed competent at helping each other
Tim Norman, Australia, Steep Alpine Ice Course:
"Plugging steps across a slushy glacier, in the most beautiful part of the world that I've ever seen. It was one of my life's best ever trips. A big thank you to the entire Aspiring Guides team. I really did enjoy it and I'm always thankful for being able to see something so special and come back safe and sound - as are my family. That's the true value of taking a guide along, instead of a partner." |
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Meet the Climbing Guides |
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About Us
> Meet the Climbing Guides
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Whitney Thurlow: Chief Guide and Director
Whitney is an internationally qualified U.I.A.G.M. Mountain Guide who has skied and climbed throughout New Zealand since 1979. Former Training Officer of the New Zealand Mountain Guides Association, his passion is exploring New Zealand’s Southern Alps. Whitney has over 50 ascents of Mount Aspiring and countless Southern Alps adventures. After living and working in New Zealand for over 20 years (originally from Jackson Hole, U.S.), Whitney and his partner decided to create a high end backcountry travel experience and hence Wild Walks NZ was created. Whitney has also skied, trekked and climbed throughout the world. He won the 1990 World Telemark Giant Slalom Championships and won four North American Telemark Championships, and takes pride in cooking fluffy rice in adverse conditions. |
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Phil Penney, IFMGA : Senior Guide
There are some things guides don't want, and one of them is to have a climbing guidebook dedicated to you - usually it only means one thing. But Phil is special and it is quite an honor to have the Mt. Aspiring Climbing Guide dedicated to him by his long time climbing partner Alan Uren.
Like Phil's personality his distinct blond hair stands out in a crowd. Phil is a senior UIAGM / IFMGA certified guide. Phil's 'bag' flows over with multiple ice & alpine first ascents, an ascent of the Cassin Ridge on Denali (Alaska), traverse of Mount Cook National Park with Al Uren, traverse and ski descents in the Mount Aspiring National Park, traverse of the Darrans mountains.
Phil is one of the foremost adventure guides in NZ and also has a passion for... paragliding, hang-gliding, windsurfing, sailing on his yacht. |
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Aritza Monesterio : IFMGA Guide
Senior Guide and Peru trip leader
Aritza has lived and guided in Peru's Cordillia Blanca for over 25 years and operates a lodge on Huarez. He spends the Peru off season guiding for Aspiring Guides in New Zealand. Aritza pioneered some of the Cordilla Blanca's hardest climbs including the West Face of Chacraraju. More importantly he is know as a tireless guide (it must come from his years at altitude) who is meticulous in his planning and fun to be with in the mountains.
Aritza is trip leader for our Peru climbing and trekking operations |
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Stefan Sporli : IFMGA Guide
Stefan was born in NZ to Swiss parents, and grew up playing at the beach and in the snowy mountains of the north island. Stefans career in the mountains was sparked when he set out for the hills on his bicycle, with a backpack and snowboard. Since then he has travelled around the world, working and playing. His professional experience ranges from avalanche forecasting through to fine arts. He loves going on adventures and getting to know people, and thinks that bicycles are a great way of getting around.
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Thomas Schattovits: IFMGA Guide
Thomas gained his IFMGA status in Austria in the early 1990's, and has been guiding on and off in New Zealand since 1994. He has also extensively guided rock climbing, canyoning, tramping and snow craft in Australia, and climbed and guided in Antarctica, Europe and South America. He likes minimum impact ascents on less climbed peaks, ice climbing - and hot pools and alpine meadows as a contrast. When not guiding, he swings a carpenter's hammer. For fun he is seen on a mountain bike or on foot or skis racing up and down the hills. Thomas has a degree in education and likes to make music. He lives in Wanaka with his partner and three children.
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Simon Howells : Guide
Simon loves activities such as rock climbing, skiing, telemarking - ski touring, and mountain biking. He is interested in literature and history. He's Australian and has lived in Wanaka, NZ for 7 years. He is a member of the Treble Cone Ski Patrol. Favourite routes in New Zealand: North Shoulder of Mt. Tasman; SW ridge and South face of Mount Aspiring ; South face of Aoraki/Mt Cook; Strauchon Face of Mt. Dilemma ; West Ridge of Mt. Malte Brun ; North Buttress of Mt. Sabre. 40 ascents of Mt Aspiring; 4 ascents Mt Cook
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Tony Donaldson : Guide
With an ability to party that is just a memory for the rest of us, we can only sit back and admire his strength, enthusiasm and endurance. Tony grew up on the remote West Coast of New Zealand and when he was old enough to go to work, his father sent him down to a guy named Mike Brown to see if he could learn a trade. Mike runs New Zealand’s first Glacier guiding company and Tony was put to work swinging a 5 pound ice axe cutting steps in the ice for tourists. That was 12 years ago and Tony has been working in the mountains ever since. He works as a professional ski patroller running Ohau skifield in the winter. Tony has an adventure lifestyle that is hard to keep up with. A prodigious climber, Tony is quick to laugh and hard to faze. He is a great companion in the mountains. |
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Pete James: Guide
Recently returning to us from work in the wilds of Western Papua that inevitably included a quick climb of Carstensz Pyramid before tea! Pete has been mountain guiding since 2000 after beginning his climbing career in 1987. He is an NZMGA Aspirant Guide and former director of Aspiring Guides. He is an adaptable fellow- a rigger, fitter /machinist, marine biologist, builder, landscaper, rope access technician, scaffolder, rabbiter, and paperboy. His passions are family, good food and wine, friends and having a laugh. |
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Tim Steward : Guide
Tim grew up in South Wales (the original, not the New South Wales) and started climbing in disused coal pits. Avoiding black lung disease he moved on the university and the mountains of Snowdonia and eventually the european Alps, Scotland, Norway, S.E. Asia and China. With a degree in mechanical engineering Tim settled down to a job designing aircraft seats but soon discovered that leading trips to Soth Africa and the Himalayas was more to his liking. Visiting New Zealand on holiday three years ago proved to be a brilliant career move. |
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Felix Landman: Guide
I got into climbing because of a thirst for adventure, the beauty of the mountains, and for the plain movement of our body over terrain. I grew up on a sheep farm in North Canterbury, and have since then been wandering around the world for the better part of ten years, but am now happy to call Wanaka home. I like climbing and skiing all over the Southern Alps, and am busy sniffing out areas with room for new routes, and was happy to find a clean line on the Abel Janzoon Face of Mt Tasman this past summer. I enjoy the camaradery of the hills, the simplicity of the pursuit and the challenge of trying to bake damper on an MSR. |
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Matt Chessor: Guide
Matt Chessor came to guiding from his love of skiing “if I wanted to ski down it I had to climb up it”. Matt grew up in Australia and when he realized that Kosciosco was as big as his home country could offer he started to look overseas to scratch his climbing itch. Another graduate of the West Coast glacier guiding scene Matt’s favorite climb is the North Shoulder of Mnt. Tasman “or anything else on the coast”. Matt lives over the hill in Queenstown but we try not to hold that against him since his easy going style is popular with everyone he goes into the hills with. |
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Mark Austin-Chaval: Guide
Mark was raised in the hills on cental otago first completeing the routeburn track at age 8. He was lured into climbing "by a pretty girl" when he was at university and since has pursued his passion for climbing in France, Switzerland, Canda and Nepal. Mark lives in Queenstown with his wife and 13 month old daughter and does ski patrol work in the off season. His favorite climb is the Grand Traverse of Mount Cook. Likes sunshine and a good lunch. |
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Andy Cole : Guide
Andy has been an army mountaineering and survival instructor for many years. After leaving the Army, he took up a position as an Antarctic Field trainer, Leadership and personal development facilitator. Before coming to guiding, Andy trained as an aircraft technician and trade instructor as well as being a Geo technician and rock blaster. There's not much that Andy can't turn his hand to! And in his spare time there's nothing he likes better than to go ski touring and sailing with his two sons. |
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Xavier Fournier: IFMGA Guide - Switzerland
Xavier is an IFMGA mountain guide member of the swiss mountain guides association. He is born in Valais (Switzerland), right in the middle of the Alps and is speaking french, german, italian end english. Since 2002, he is working as mountain guide mostly in Switzerland and also in Europe or Canada. On summertime, he likes the classic alpine ascents, rock climbing and multipitches routes. On wintertime, he is specialized in the avalanches hazards and trainings. He works for the swiss avalanches institute (SLF Davos) and is in charge of the avalanches training for the ski teacher (Swiss Snowsports). Sandrine, Lily & Zian, the members of his family are used to travel with him around the world to live fantastics experiences.
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Federico Varengo: IFMGA Guide - Italy
"Freddie (whose real name in Italian is Federico) was born in the Alps and is from Cuneo near Turin in the North West Italy. He is a passionate climber and skier. His favourite European ascents include the Eiger and Grand Jorasse and "everything around Mont Blanc". He is already learning that climbing in NZ is very different - he can't believe how changeable the weather can be here. But one of his first missions was to ski off Mt Aspiring while dodging the wild spring weather. He has also followed this up with a ski off Mt Cook and Mt Tasman. He's into "Lucid Dreaming"...it's not a rock band....we'll leave you to ask him about it. " |
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Jim Blyth : IFMGA Guide - Europe/UK
IFMGA Guide Jim Blyth is a member of both the British Mountain Guides and the French Syndicat National de Guides de Montagne. A Scotsman, Jim has been living in France for the past 14 years and since 2000 in the village of Servoz, close to Chamonix. He specialises in ski mountaineering trips to unusual destinations such as Mongolia, Greenland, Lebanon, Russia and Chile to name a few. He also does small scale ice climbing and mountaineering expeditions around the world and traditional summer alpine guiding in the European Alps. Jim has brought his young family with him to New Zealand for 6 months and we are delighted to have him as a member of the Aspiring Guides team for the season. |
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Marty Beare: IFMGA Guide - Australia
Marty is a fully qualified IFMGA international mountain and ski guide. Marty has climbed and guided throughout the world, and is well known in the New Zealand mountaineering scene. Originally from Australia, he adds further to the international flavour of the company.
Marty has guided extensively in the Mount Cook area, and been a climbing instructor for several of the country’s leading outdoor centres, and an Antarctic guide for the USA’s National Science Foundation. A graduate with a Master’s degree in Applied Science, he has developed and taught outdoor leadership programmes both in NZ and overseas.
His long mountaineering career includes ascents of many of the classic climbs of the Southern Alps of New Zealand, including thirteen routes on Mt Cook, eleven separate routes on Mt Hicks, plus climbs of the Balfour and Hidden Balfour Faces of Mt Tasman and the South Face of Douglas. He has also climbed in Alaska, including the sought-after North Buttress of Mt Hunter, the Himalaya where he came close to making the first ascent of a difficult 6,800m peak, and the Caucasus where he guided an ascent of it’s highest peak, Mt Elbrus. He also likes alt. country music. |
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Phill Thomas - Guide-IFMGA - Europe/UK
Phill is quick to laugh with and has an uncanny resemblance to Yvon Choinard. He lives in Cardiff Wales and has a long standing passion for all aspects of mountaineering. He spent 10 years consolidating his personal climbing before qualifying as mountain guide in 1979. Since then he has been actively involved in teaching and guiding parties in rock climbing, mountain walking, alpinism, ski mountaineering and trips to the greater ranges.
Personal and guiding trips have taken Phill to a wide range of venues across the world: Western and Eastern Europe, Siberia, Africa, South America, Canada, USA, Greenland the Himalaya and the Southern Alps of New Zealand. His passion for the mountains is unabated and so the list continues to grow. He greatly enjoys the company of others who love the mountain environment; even his immediate family are all mountaineers. |
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Andy Oxley: Director
A keen skier, Andy has spent the last 10 years ski touring on some of our best high alpine terrain, including the Mannering Glacier, Pioneer Pass and Graham Saddle. That's spring...for the rest of year she's locked in the office & chained to the computer to ensure that Aspiring Guides keeps on the straight and narrow. She does ocassionally escape for a spot of tramping and sailing over the summer months when we've got our backs turned! |
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Robyn Brighouse : Administration
After many years of dreaming about mountain climbing Robyn participated in a Mountain Skills Course with Aspiring Guides in 2003. She loved it so much she continued in the same year with a Black Peak Ice Climbing Trip and a summit of Mt Aspiring. In 2004 Robyn travelled to Peru to join an Aspiring Guides expedition in the Cordillera Blanca and summitted Ishinca and Alpamayo. As she was spending so much time in the office Aspiring Guides decided to employ her to help out in the office.
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